Camera error: Could not connect to Android camera - what to do?

Failed to connect to camera

When entering the camera, a system message like “Failed to connect to the camera” may appear on the screen, the screen may simply turn black, and the application may close spontaneously. If you encounter such a problem, first inspect the lens. New packaged gadgets have a camera protected with a special film; perhaps you simply did not pay attention to it and forgot to peel it off. If the gadget has been in your possession for a long time, pay attention to the presence of dirt. A visual inspection can also detect the presence of mechanical “injuries” - such a situation cannot be avoided without paid professional intervention.

1. Restart your phone and try logging into the camera again. Sometimes the problem goes away on its own.
2. Run a scan for malware on any antivirus and remove it.

Sometimes simply cleaning your phone from unnecessary programs and files helps. Clogged memory simply does not have room to perform simple basic operations.

Consider whether you have installed any new components on your phone. They probably have a negative impact on the camera's performance. If there are any, remove them and check if the camera works.

Perhaps you recently changed something in the settings menu and accidentally disabled access to the camera. Carefully review your phone settings; the problem may be hidden there too.

If the above manipulations are not effective, only a specialist will deal with your problem. To carry out competent diagnostics and high-quality repairs, provide all the important points about the operation of your gadget, list recent events that likely affected its operation.

Check for updates

Android applications are improved and updated quite often. In many cases, users do not have time to keep up with updates or are simply in no hurry to install them. But while some programs can work successfully in the previous version, some stop functioning completely until you update them.

Therefore, check if you need to install a newer version of the camera. If this doesn't help, try other troubleshooting methods.

Camera won't turn on on Android

When the camera on Android does not work, the system, as a rule, signals this with special system messages. It could be “Cannot connect to camera”, “Camera error” or a set of code characters. Try switching the camera mode from front to main and back. If the system warning is displayed in only one mode, most likely everything is normal at the hardware level, and one of the lenses or related spare parts needs to be repaired.

It also happens that the camera turns on, displays the image from the lens on the screen, responds to the display buttons, but does not save images and videos. Try to delete unnecessary things from the phone’s memory; perhaps the device simply does not have enough free space to save. The problem may also be hidden in the settings, where the application is simply not allowed to save files on this device.

Users of inexpensive devices produced by small companies are more likely to encounter problems when using the camera.

• Connecting a wireless WiFi camera to your phone: necessary applications for watching the broadcast

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Moisture getting into the housing

If it turns out that the camera on Xiaomi stopped functioning immediately after water got inside the case, then the first thing you need to do is turn off the smartphone. Next, the SIM card and memory card are removed from it.

After this, you should try to dry the phone as best as possible. The best option is to place it in a container filled with rice for a day. Then you can further dry the product with a hairdryer.

However, this option cannot guarantee 100% restoration of the device’s functionality, because water could oxidize the contacts and microcircuits, which will cause the module to fail.

Why can't I connect to the camera on my phone?

Let's look at the reasons why the camera stops working:

1. One of the reasons is a firmware update. If the camera fails after updating the Android version, the operating system should be rolled back and reinstalled.
2. Damage to camera setup modules. This result is caused by serious mechanical impacts on the device, corrosion of the internals due to the ingress of liquid, and fatigue failure on old equipment.
3. Virus programs. Malicious programs can interfere with the correct operation of the camera; they can easily enter the device’s computer if it is not protected by anti-virus applications.
4. The module cache is clogged.

Test your phone in safe mode

Android, like Windows, has a safe mode. The essence of this mode is that the phone starts without third-party programs. To start this mode you need:

1. When turning on, hold down two buttons - power and one of the volume controls (depending on the device).
2. Then a notification will appear asking you to reboot the gadget in safe mode.

Then the gadget will start in simplified mode, as indicated by the corresponding mark. If you can’t log in this way, it is recommended that you read the instructions for your phone. If the camera turns on in this mode, you need to find the application that is blocking it and remove it.

How to solve this problem

You can try these methods:

• Clear cache. In settings, find the camera application, erase data and cache.
• Update your camera app. Perhaps its version is outdated and is not compatible with the current firmware of your phone.
• Try installing any other photo and video application. For example Camera Zoom FX. If it doesn't work, at least you'll know for sure that the problem is technical and not software in nature.

Hello! I bought Xiaomi Redmi Note 5 with global firmware in China. Opened it, turned it on, let's check and... The camera is not working. Writes: Camera error, failed to connect to the camera. I tried a third-party application, the selfie camera works with it, but the front one does not. (all manipulations took place in the evening) I turned off the phone at night, turned it on in the morning and after some time the camera began to work. I tested it, checked it - everything is ok. And then after lunch I decided to take a couple of photos and again the same problem, a camera error pops up. Maybe someone has encountered this or knows a solution. You can take it to the service, but suddenly there is an option to do it yourself.

The error “Failed to connect to the video surveillance server” appears on the phone both for people with an installed video surveillance system and spontaneously. Perhaps you did not install any cameras, but the error appears. Let's consider both of these cases.

Content

hide 1Error with installed cameras 2There are no cameras or video surveillance systems

Method 4: Hard reset

So, let's move on to heavy artillery.
If none of the above helped, and the “Camera Failure” warning does not disappear, then you need to perform a hard reset of the device. Please note that all existing data in memory will be deleted, so save it on your computer, for example. If you don’t know how to do this, then read the instructions on our website.

If you're trying to launch the Camera app on your device, but instead of seeing a viewfinder window, you see a black screen or the message "Couldn't connect to the camera," then either there's an error in the Camera app or your camera module is damaged. Let's figure out what the procedure should be if the camera on Android does not work.

macOS

Apps may not be able to collect as much data about you on your laptop or desktop, but it's still important to know where these permission settings are so you can check that all your installed programs are behaving well and no one is spying on you .

For macOS, you need to open the Apple menu, then select System Preferences, Security & Privacy, and Privacy. At the bottom left of the dialog box, you have all the permissions for apps, including camera, microphone, and location—click any entry in the list to see the corresponding apps and make changes if necessary. When accessing your computer's location, you will see a small arrow icon next to any of the programs that have recently logged this data.

You can get the same arrow to show up in the menu bar when you access location services if you want: In the privacy tab, click “details” next to “system services” and turn on the “show location” option. For active ongoing access to your webcam and microphone, you have a small green warning light as part of macOS.

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Why does the camera crash?

If Samsung writes a message like this (it may look like “A server error has occurred: reboot the camera”), there is room for software errors:

• Problems with updating Android OS. There are probably bugs in the firmware (they are usually fixed immediately) or the update download was interrupted;
• The smartphone has run out of memory. There is simply nowhere for new photos to be saved;
• cache or Camera application errors;
• the user incorrectly changed the gadget settings;
• The camera app is outdated.

The problem also occurs if the phone is dropped on a hard surface, water gets into it, or the module is damaged.

This is what a camera failure on a Samsung smartphone looks like.

Reinstalling the driver

Go to Device Manager again using the devmgmt.msc command from the Win + R window.

Now expand the Cameras tab, right-click on the device you are using and select “Uninstall”. Confirm this action in the pop-up window and complete the removal.

Restart your Windows 10 PC and the missing driver will be installed automatically. Otherwise, visit the vendor's website and download and install the driver manually. Check if the problem is resolved

What is this error?

A similar malfunction, in which a user who decides to use the smartphone’s camera is shown a message: “could not connect to the camera on Android,” has been encountered by many users lately. At the same time, the number of owners of gadgets on this operating system who have reported the presence of such an error is constantly growing.

The problem itself, oddly enough, does not have a guaranteed solution, since the process of eliminating the malfunction depends solely on the cause of its occurrence. The whole difficulty lies in the fact that, as a rule, it is not possible to identify them. This makes solving the problem somewhat more difficult, but does not prevent it at all.

Factory reset

Failures in the system lead to incorrect operation of the equipment. Sometimes to restore you need to reset to factory settings. This is done as follows:

• Go to System Settings.
• Open the Backup & Reset menu.
• In the window that appears, select the “Reset settings” function - you will see a warning that all data will be deleted, after which the system will return to the configurations in accordance with the factory settings.

There is another way to set the initial settings of the device: enter the combination *2767*3855# in the number entry window, after entering the system will return to the factory settings without additional requests.

Other ways to resolve the error

If you are using Android Marshmallow OS, then you need to check the access rights to the problematic application. If your device does not have this permission, you may encounter confirmation requests or even errors.

1. Open your device's settings;
2. Find the “Applications” item;
3. Select “Cameras”, select “Permissions”;
4. Make sure the settings here allow you to use the device's camera. If this is not the case, correct the settings.

App permissions in Android Marshmallow

If these recommendations did not help you, there is still one more method that helps solve most problems with Android devices - resetting the settings to default. Before this, you need to transfer all important files from your phone to a computer or flash drive. If this is not done, they will be destroyed.

1. To resolve the error, you need to open the settings again, find the “Backup and reset” item here;
2. Select “Reset” in this section;
3. Confirm your actions and wait until the device restores previous versions of files and settings.

Once this process is complete, open the camera and check if the “Close other applications that may be using the camera or flash” error appears.

Clear cache data using Recovery

On a Samsung Galaxy, recovery mode starts like this:

• Turn off your device.

• Press and hold the volume up key and simultaneously press the device's power key.

• Release the power key as soon as the phone turns on, but do not release the volume up key.

• Recovery Mode will load. Navigate through it using the volume control and device on/off keys.

• Find the Wipe cache partition. Clear the cache using this item.

• Reboot your smartphone by selecting Reboot system now.

What to do if the camera does not work on Android:

Before you begin, launch the camera app and if you see a black screen on the main camera, switch to the front selfie camera. If the front camera works, then the problem is directly in the main camera module itself and cannot be fixed on your own. But, if the front camera also does not show an image, read below.

• Reset camera app cache and data

  Go to Settings => Applications => Camera and select the Memory

  Click first “Clear cache” , then “Clear data”

  Try launching the camera and, if it doesn’t work, move on to the next step

• Install a third-party camera app

  Perhaps the standard camera application is so stupid that even resetting the cache and data does not help. In this case, you can try installing a third-party camera app. Fortunately, there are a huge number of such programs in the Play Market and you can choose to suit every taste.

  You can install anything, but I recommend Open Camera as one of the most stable, and it’s completely free.

• Perform a hard reset

  If the previous methods did not help fix the problem with the camera, you can take drastic measures - reset your phone to factory settings. Go to your smartphone settings and find the item “Backup and Reset” or “Backup and Restore” . The name depends on the device model and Android version, but in any case it will contain the word recovery or reset

  Select “Reset data” and wait until the phone restarts

  Please note that resetting the data will lead to the loss of all information stored in the internal memory of the phone. You should also keep in mind that when re-activating, you may need to provide the Google account information previously entered on the phone.

Unfortunately, more serious camera failures on Android cannot be fixed on your own. In this case, you should contact a service center for help.

Question from a user

Hello.

On my phone, when I try to open the “Camera” application, nothing happens (just a black screen), no errors, no messages. Those. the application starts, but the camera itself does not work (does not record anything). I also noticed that sometimes an error appears: “could not connect to the camera”...

Otherwise, the phone behaves as usual (everything worked before). What can be wrong?..

Hello.

Unfortunately, the problem is not that rare. In general, I would divide it (conditionally) into two possible scenarios:

1. the problem is of a software nature: failure, errors, viruses, incorrect operation, etc. (and then there is a chance to independently restore the camera’s operation);
2. Something in the phone’s hardware has broken (here you can’t do without service and costs...). The most favorable scenario is that the train simply came off.

In this article I will give several recommendations (step by step), following which, it is often possible to restore the phone’s operation (if the problem was in the first scenario).

Be that as it may, by going through the steps of the article, you will at least eliminate some of the reasons (and it may turn out that you will save money) before a possible trip to the service...

*

Cleaning the application

To correct incorrect operation, you often need to clear the data and cache, which is done using the following steps:

• Go to Android system settings, applications section.
• Find the Camera program and in the menu that appears, first stop it.
• Then click on the “Clear cache” button. After the process is completed, select the “Erase data” function in the same menu.
• Launch the camera again.